Of Fear and Happiness
by attlantica
Summary: Part I. Luna learns how to conjure her Patronus and then comes face-to-face with a boggart. Two-shot!
1. The Patronus

_Disclaimer: anything you recognize is not mine!_

 _Word Count: 782_

 _For the My Boggart...My Patronus Competition – Luna Lovegood_

 _Note: this is not beta'd, so if you see anything wrong, please let me now (:_

* * *

The Room of Requirement was full of people who varied of age, gender and House. They were united by a common cause, which was the ultimate destruction of the pink toad– erm, well, actually to defend themselves and to protect the school.

Ah, semantics.

Anyway, all together under one roof and under one very ridiculous teenager, or so Luna thought, they were learning charms and jinxes and complicated spells so they could achieve their ends.

As a Ravenclaw, Luna practically twitched with enthusiasm at the idea of learning, but as a person, she knew they would get in trouble. It was obvious.

Many people underestimated Luna.

"–Today we'll be learning an advanced spell." said Harry, which made Luna pay attention to him. She liked advanced spells! "However, many will not get it on your first try. I didn't, so don't get mad or sad if you don't get it right,"

A chorus of mumbles started around the room. Hermione nudged Harry on the ribs and his eyes widened.

"Oh, of course, I forgot," he blushed a little, "It's the Patronus Charm. Many of you must have heard of it before,"

Chatter broke out, mainly from the Ravenclaws present and a handful of Gryffindors. A Seventh-Year Hufflepuff smiled as if he reminisced something from far, far away.

Luna just giggled, attracting the attention of those around her.

"What's so funny, Loony?" Cho Chang asked.

Luna just smiled at her. "Well, Cho, I just find this really weird," she said while shrugging. Marietta Edgecombe, who was on Cho's left side, laughed out loud.

"You," she said while taking a breath. "You, Loony Lovegood, think this is weird? Wow,"

Ginny Weasley, backed by Harry Potter, stoop up and went towards them.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ginny said with a raise brow.

Harry stood right behind her, and immediately backed her up "Yes, Cho, Marietta, what were you doing? Insulting one of our friends? Attacking a fellow D.A. member? You don't want to be thrown out of the D.A., am I right?" he said with a tone so low and cold, it might just belong to a Slytherin.

Marietta and Cho shook their head quickly and Harry clasped his hands.

"Well," he said cheerily. "Let's start,"

* * *

Harry had been right on something, Luna thought. One would not always get the Patronus on the first try, or the second, or the fifth, but it was all on perseverance and you had to belief in yourself.

All things Luna believed she had.

The leader of the D.A. was right behind her when she attempted the charm once again. Thinking about her happiest memory, it being just her mother smiling, or her friends defending her, she repeated the incantation.

" _Expecto Patronus!"_ she said in that quirky voice of hers. Immediately a wisp of smoke burst out of the wand. Luna felt a warm enveloping her, filling her with happiness and such a thing she had not felt before in her life. Her soul hopped with happiness, and she knew, she just knew, what form her Patronus was.

From behind her, Harry called out, "That was perfect, Luna! Now try a little bit more so you can have a corporeal form," and he walked away to help out others.

(Especially Neville, who seemed to have a bit of a problem with his wand movement.)

* * *

However, Luna couldn't quite get the form right away.

On another day, when the D.A. met again, Harry encouraged them to try their Patronus again. Many sighed, especially those who didn't get it the week before, but many smiled, remembering their Patronus, or wisp of smoke.

Luna went over to her normal place and started thinking about her happiest memory. Her mother and friends were all together in a bright purple room, all with big smiles on their faces and happy eyes. Luna closed her eyes and smiled when she said the incantation.

" _Expecto Patronus!"_ she exclaimed, and when she opened her eyes she could see a hare for a single moment before it disappeared.

Ginny, who was besides her, saw her Patronus and went over to hug her.

"You did it, Luna!" she said happily.

Luna looked at her and giggled. "You did too, don't think I didn't see it,"

Ginny scoffed. "See it? How can you not? It's a huge horse!"

"But it's a cute horse," Luna said smiling.

"I guess," Ginny said and then went back to her space and kept practicing.

Luna one again stood alone and thought of her happiest memory, which maybe it didn't really exist at all, but if Luna believed in it, it was as true as the Nargles and the Wrackspruts.

 **FIN**


	2. The Boggart

_Disclaimer: anything you recognize is not mine!_

 _Word Count: 516_

 _For the My Boggart...My Patronus Competition – Luna Lovegood_

 _Note: so as the other one, this was not beta'd, so if you see any mistakes, please do let me know (:_

* * *

The halls of Hogwarts were dark and lonely when no one was around, especially when it was night, but Luna Lovegood didn't really care about that.

Walking around the corridors near the Astronomy Tower, Luna was thinking about her new friends and a couple of other things normal people wouldn't really know nor would they care about.

That was until she heard a noise from behind her, and thinking it was most probably a prefect from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff (Luna had studied the prefect rounds) she wasn't scared about getting caught.

To her surprise, it was not a prefect but something she couldn't quite fathom. It was grumbling and turning until it sensed her, when it instantly turned into a Yarding Sprut, and a blobby figure lied under the creature.

The blobby figure was almost unrecognizable if it wasn't for that pale blonde hair Luna knew as the palm of her hand, and the wrinkled she could observe Luna knew, as they were her father's.

Which actually were because the blobby figure was her father.

Her eyes watered and she started thinking why her father, of all things, would be laying there almost dead and being eaten by a Yarding Sprut. Maybe it was another creature? The gears were all turning in Luna's tiny head, when another thing appeared in front of her.

The creature started turning again until she saw Harry, Ginny and Neville looking at her.

"We are not your friends," they said with disdain.

Luna tilted her head in confusion. Why would her friends be out there at those hours of the night? Maybe they had the same reasons as her? Were they bored? Were they actually there?

"You're very weird, you know that right?" said Harry with a look of disgust.

"Why would be even talk to you?" said Neville.

"I don't even know why I ever thought we could be friend! You are such a crazy naïve witch!" exclaimed Ginny, her eyes filled with laughter.

Luna couldn't quite understand. This behavior was not normal, so she was right with the part about those things not being her actual friends. She started searching through her brain creatures that could change appearance. Luna knew of Nargles, the Snabber Witch and the Boggart.

Luna laughed. Of course! It was a boggart! She remembered Professor Lupin's class about that. Luna had made the boggart explode when it realized she wasn't really scared of anything.

"Riddikulus!" Luna exclaimed while laughing at the whole thing.

Harry, Ginny and Neville suddenly had party hats. Harry and Ginny were carrying gifts and Neville had a huge pistachio cake with a Crumple-Headed Snorshack figurine on top.

"Happy Birthday!" they all exclaimed with big smiles plastered on their faces.

"Oh, thanks Mister boggart, but my birthday's tomorrow!" Luna said laughing while she skipped away from the creature.

After a while of walking here and there, she stopped. "Oh, Merlin!" she whispered to herself. "Tomorrow's my birthday! I have to write to daddy!" So she went running to the Ravenclaw tower and wrote to her father until the sun was rising.

 **FIN**


End file.
